A nurse escorted a tired, young woman to the bed side of an elderly man.
"Your daughter is here," she whispered to the patient. She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened. He was heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack and he dimly saw the young woman standing outside the oxygen tent.
He reached out his hand and the young woman tightly wrapped her fingers around it, squeezing a message of encouragement. The nurse brought a chair next to the bedside. All through the night the young woman sat holding the old man's hand, and offering gentle words of hope. The dying man said nothing as he held tightly to his daughter.
As dawn approached, the patient died. The young woman placed on the bed the lifeless hand she had been holding, and then she went to notify the nurse.
While the nurse did what was necessary, the young woman waited. When she had finished her task, the nurse began to say words of sympathy to the young woman.
But she interrupted her. "Who was that man?" She asked.
The startled nurse replied, "I thought he was your father."
"No, he was not my father," she answered. "I never saw him before in my life".
"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?" asked the nurse.
She replied, "I knew he needed his daughter, and his daughter just wasn't here. When I realized he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his daughter, I knew how much he needed me..."
By: Silver Phoenix
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© 1997 silverphoenix@cybergal.com
